We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christi Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christi below.

Alright, Christi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My name is Christi Johnson, and I’m the CEO & Founder of Christi Johnson Creative, a Creative Launch Agency based in Anderson, SC and serving businesses worldwide. We call ourselves Team CJC or CJC for short. We believe that magic happens when every person is empowered to be their true selves and do their most important work. We exist to create a culture where small business owners are fully equipped to make their dream business a reality.

I have an amazing team supporting me. All of them are my family members! None of us followed the typical pattern of getting a degree in a field, getting a job in that field, and then climbing the corporate ladder. We are all creative thinkers and self-starters. I’d love to tell you a little bit about my team so you know more about why our mission of empowering small business owners to make their dream biz a reality is so important to us!

First is my brother, Jay. He’s a brand strategist and graphic designer. He enjoys creating his own schedule so he can spend time with his son. Next is a group of my husband’s family! My brother-in-law, David, his wife, Lydia, and my sister-in-law Hannah all have roles on Team CJC. David is our web developer, Lydia is a wedding makeup artist and also our administrative assistant, and Hannah owns a jewelry business and is our Chief Happiness Officer and our Executive Assistant. I’m thrilled to have them on my team because I can help them work remotely doing something they all enjoy and on their own time.

In the Johnson Family, we are all about following your dreams, doing what you love, and making time for what’s most important. I have 23 nieces and nephews, so having the flexibility to attend family gatherings whenever I want to is my first priority, and it’s the same for everyone on my team.

When we work with business owners at Team CJC, we are able to equip other talented individuals do the same thing. I want to inspire others to believe in themselves and make their wildest dreams come true. It is possible to have a thriving business doing what you love and we exist to make every part of launching your business or your digital offer easier!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started my first business when I was 8 with my friend Sarah. We called it “Sarah and Christi’s Stuff Shop” and we sold handmade pillows, hats and scarves. Business ownership has always been a part of me! My first official business venture began as a photographer in high school. I bought my first DSLR camera in 2008 so I could take better photos at rock concerts. I eventually started photographing my friends senior portraits and then engagement sessions and weddings. I fell in love with the wedding industry and have probably photographed around 100 weddings.

I’ve had other businesses too. You could call me a serial entrepreneur. I taught swim lessons and piano lessons for 5 years while I was pursuing my Bachelors and Masters degrees in music. Once I gained some experience in the wedding industry, the teacher in me quickly wanted to pivot to helping other business owners as well. I formed Christi Johnson Creative in 2019 and started assisting photographers in their businesses. I quickly realized I had a knack for all things launching and launched my first course on helping business owners launch their dream biz in 2020.

Over the years my offers have expanded and I’ve grown my team. We take away all of the stress of launching for our clients. We work with hobbyists wanting to launch their first business through our course, The Dream Biz Roadmap, and help them get fully launched in just 8 weeks! We also offer an upgraded version of the course The Dream Biz Accelerator, that includes 3 months of coaching plus brand design and the creation of their first website.

For businesses that are already established, we help them launch their online courses or digital offers. We offer full-service launch execution from webinar planning, tech integrations, sales page design, and email funnel creation. I hear all the time “I hate launching!” People think it’s overwhelming and stressful. We want to flip that script and help people see that launching can be FUN. It’s about celebrating your hard work and putting your offer out into the world!

I love what I do because I get to work with so many amazing business owners. We’ve worked with artists, photographers, makers, florists, designers, musicians, virtual assistants, coaches, and more. I’m constantly in awe of our clients and they inspire me every day! I love that I get to help them launch and have fun doing it!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing a team is not for the faint of heart! It’s all about building camaraderie, playing to everyone’s strengths, and setting every team member up for success through detailed SOPs (standard operating procedures). It’s easy to think that your way is the best way, but I’ve learned that everyone has their own way of doing things and that’s wonderful! I’m constantly surprised by my team.

My advice for anyone wanting to grow their team is to think specifically about the role you would like to hire for, write out detailed SOPs, and set realistic deadlines on projects. It’s best to give more instructions than you think you need to when planning projects and then give your team member full ownership of that project once you’ve passed it off to them. No one likes a micro manager.

To maintain a high morale among the team, I like to have a regular practice of sharing wins. We do weekly check-ins in our Slack Channel. We all share a win from the week, what we are looking forward to about the next week, and where we need support from the team. We also share wins in our monthly Team Calls and 1:1 calls too. The check-in process helps everyone feel good about the work they are doing and ask for help when they need it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that I need to be working all the time and constantly put others first. Earlier this year, I burnt out. I’m a chronic perfectionist and overachiever, and I thought that to scale my business I had to cram in a million tasks. I was super overwhelmed. I scaled my business to 10k months but learned very quickly that I was neglecting myself. I got extremely stressed and had a lot of sleepless nights. It made me more irritable with my family and more stressed when I spoke to my team. I had to learn that regulating my nervous system and taking care of my mental health was more important than monetary growth. I accomplished that through therapy, getting outside every day, doing something every day for myself like playing music or creating art, and working out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christijohnsoncreative.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/christijohnsoncreative
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/christijohnsoncreative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christijohnsoncreative/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChristiJohnsonCreative/
• Other: Podcast: dreambizpodcast.com
  Our Story: https://youtu.be/pz-dKZs_1VI?si=1eDa36ThVvCDaWrv

Image Credits

Stephanie and Christi Photography